Path of Hurricane Matthew moving up the East Coast, October 2016. Sand from federal waters will be used as part of a hurricane and storm damage reduction project for Hutchinson Island, Martin County, Florida. Image credit: NOAA.

The Restoration Center has restored more than 2,000 projects nationwide. You can see what’s happening in your neck of the woods by using the Restoration Atlas, a one-stop review of NOAA’s collective restoration efforts around the country. Visit habitat.noaa.gov.

Ocean Infinity’s fleet of USVs and AUVs (worth close to $50M) is by far the largest UMV asset fleet out there for commercial use. These are just a few of their assets. Photo courtesy of SeaTrepid International, LLC. (SeaTrepid has partnered with Ocean Infinity to develop a multiple autonomous vehicle program.)

Deep ocean temperatures were generally high throughout the Paleocene and Eocene, with a particularly warm spike at the boundary between the two geological epocs around 56 million years ago. Temperatures in the distant past are inferred from proxies (oxygen isotope ratios from fossil foraminifera). "Q" stands of Quarternary. Graph by Hunter Allen and Michon Scott, using data from the NOAA National Climatic Data Center, courtesy of Carrie Morrill.

With recent commitments made by governments around the globe, the world is on track to protect over 10% of the globe’s marine areas by 2020, announced Dr. Cristiana Paș ca Palmer, the United Nation’s Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

This target was agreed by Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2010, and was also adopted by Member States of the United Nations as part of Sustainable Development Goal 14.

Since 1993, when the Convention on Biological Diversity entered into force, the area of marine protected areas in the world’s ocean and coastal waters has increased nearly twenty-fold, from 0.3% to 5.7% today. Since the adoption, in 2010, of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity and the Aichi Biodiversity targets, the area of marine protected areas has more than doubled, from 2.4 to 5.7 %.

With commitments made as of today by a number of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, an additional 4.4% percent of marine area will be covered by Marine Protected Areas by 2020.

These national commitments include: increases in protected areas expected from projects already funded; national priority identified by countries under their plans submitted to the Convention; and voluntary commitments announced in advance of the Oceans Conference. Three quarters of these new commitments have been made with implementation plans giving confidence that they will be carried out.

Focussing only on areas under national jurisdiction, 14.4% are currently protected; this is projected to rise to over 23% by 2020.

“The world is making tremendous progress in reaching this target for protected areas in our oceans, and the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 has been a catalyzing force” said Dr. Cristiana Paș ca Palmer.

“However,” she continued, “we still need to increase efforts”. “We need to ensure that the growing network of Marine Protected Areas is representative of the different ocean ecosystems. We also need to ensure that marine protected areas are managed effectively and fairly.”

“As we mark World Environment Day, these concrete steps towards protecting more of the world's marine areas is another cause for celebration. Our planet's biodiversity is critical for humanity, and all countries must redouble their efforts to reach our common objectives," said Erik Solheim, Head of UN Environment.

Marine Protected Areas contribute substantial social, economic and environmental benefits to society. They provide food security and livelihood security for some 300 million people, help mitigation and adaption to climate change and contribute to coastal protection and disaster risk reduction. Rates of return on investment in marine protected areas are very high. Recognizing the link between protected areas and human benefits, the Convention’s Programme of Work on Protected Areas and the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 takes an inclusive, people-centered approach to management.

The Convention on Biological Diversity is the key international legal instrument for protected areas, supporting and fostering national and multilateral efforts in a comprehensive manner that contribute to achievement of the Sustainable Development Agenda. The date for achievement of the targets for protected areas coincides with the end of the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity.

The total area covered by Marine Protected Areas globally has increased nearly twenty-fold since 1993 and has more than doubled since 2010

The 10% targets agreed under both the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and Sustainable Development Goal 14 are on track to be met by the 2020 target date

Ongoing efforts are needed to ensure effective and equitable management, and to protect a wider variety of species and ecosystems